335 research outputs found
Dynamical instability and dispersion management of an attractive condensate in an optical lattice
We investigate the stability of an attractive Bose-Einstein condensate in a
moving 1D optical lattice in the presence of transverse confinement. By means
of a Bogoliubov linear stability analysis we find that the system is
dynamically unstable for low quasimomenta and becomes stable near the band
edge, in a specular fashion with respect to the repulsive case. For low
interactions the instability occurs via long wavelength excitations that are
not sufficient for spoiling the condensate coherence, producing instead an
oscillating density pattern both in real and momentum space. This behaviour is
illustrated by simulations for the expansion of the condensate in a moving
lattice.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Association of ultracold double-species bosonic molecules
We report on the creation of heterospecies bosonic molecules, associated from
an ultracold Bose-Bose mixture of 41K and 87Rb, by using a resonantly modulated
magnetic field close to two Feshbach resonances. We measure the binding energy
of the weakly bound molecular states versus the Feshbach field and compare our
results to theoretical predictions. We observe the broadening and asymmetry of
the association spectrum due to thermal distribution of the atoms, and a
frequency shift occurring when the binding energy depends nonlinearly on the
Feshbach field. A simple model is developed to quantitatively describe the
association process. Our work marks an important step forward in the
experimental route towards Bose-Einstein condensates of dipolar molecules.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Double species condensate with tunable interspecies interactions
We produce Bose-Einstein condensates of two different species, Rb and
K, in an optical dipole trap in proximity of interspecies Feshbach
resonances. We discover and characterize two Feshbach resonances, located
around 35 and 79 G, by observing the three-body losses and the elastic
cross-section. The narrower resonance is exploited to create a double species
condensate with tunable interactions. Our system opens the way to the
exploration of double species Mott insulators and, more in general, of the
quantum phase diagram of the two species Bose-Hubbard model.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Controlling the dynamics of an open many-body quantum system with localized dissipation
We experimentally investigate the action of a localized dissipative potential
on a macroscopic matter wave, which we implement by shining an electron beam on
an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). We measure the losses induced by the
dissipative potential as a function of the dissipation strength observing a
paradoxical behavior when the strength of the dissipation exceeds a critical
limit: for an increase of the dissipation rate the number of atoms lost from
the BEC becomes lower. We repeat the experiment for different parameters of the
electron beam and we compare our results with a simple theoretical model,
finding excellent agreement. By monitoring the dynamics induced by the
dissipative defect we identify the mechanisms which are responsible for the
observed paradoxical behavior. We finally demonstrate the link between our
dissipative dynamics and the measurement of the density distribution of the BEC
allowing for a generalized definition of the Zeno effect. Due to the high
degree of control on every parameter, our system is a promising candidate for
the engineering of fully governable open quantum systems
Collisional properties of sympathetically cooled K
We report the experimental evidence of the sympathetic cooling of K
with Rb down to 1 K, obtained in a novel tight confining magnetic
trap. This allowed us to perform the first direct measurement of the elastic
cross section of K below 50 K. The result obtained for the triplet
scattering length, Bohr radii, agrees with previous results
derived from photoassociation spectra and from Feshbach spectroscopy of
K.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Observing Coherence Effects in an Overdamped Quantum System
It is usually considered that the spectrum of an optical cavity coupled to an
atomic medium does not exhibit a normal-mode splitting unless the system
satisfies the strong coupling condition, meaning the Rabi frequency of the
coherent coupling exceeds the decay rates of atom and cavity excitations. Here
we show that this need not be the case, but depends on the way in which the
coupled system is probed. Measurements of the reflection of a probe laser from
the input mirror of an overdamped cavity reveal an avoided crossing in the
spectrum which is not observed when driving the atoms directly and measuring
the Purcell-enhanced cavity emission. We understand these observations by
noting a formal correspondence with electromagnetically-induced transparency of
a three-level atom in free space, where our cavity acts as the absorbing medium
and the coupled atoms play the role of the control field
Scanning electron microscopy of Rydberg-excited Bose-Einstein condensates
We report on the realization of high resolution electron microscopy of
Rydberg-excited ultracold atomic samples. The implementation of an ultraviolet
laser system allows us to excite the atom, with a single-photon transition, to
Rydberg states. By using the electron microscopy technique during the Rydberg
excitation of the atoms, we observe a giant enhancement in the production of
ions. This is due to -changing collisions, which broaden the Rydberg level
and therefore increase the excitation rate of Rydberg atoms. Our results pave
the way for the high resolution spatial detection of Rydberg atoms in an atomic
sample
Observation of heteronuclear atomic Efimov resonances
The Efimov effect represents a cornerstone in few-body physics. Building on
the recent experimental observation with ultracold atoms, we report the first
experimental signature of Efimov physics in a heteronuclear system. A mixture
of K and Rb atoms was cooled to few hundred nanoKelvins and
stored in an optical dipole trap. Exploiting a broad interspecies Feshbach
resonance, the losses due to three-body collisions were studied as a function
of the interspecies scattering length. We observe an enhancement of the
three-body collisions for three distinct values of the interspecies scattering
lengths, both positive and negative. We attribute the two features at negative
scattering length to the existence of two kind of Efimov trimers, namely KKRb
and KRbRb.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Collisional and molecular spectroscopy in an ultracold Bose-Bose mixture
The route toward a Bose-Einstein condensate of dipolar molecules requires the
ability to efficiently associate dimers of different chemical species and
transfer them to the stable rovibrational ground state. Here, we report on
recent spectroscopic measurements of two weakly bound molecular levels and
newly observed narrow d-wave Feshbach resonances. The data are used to improve
the collisional model for the Bose-Bose mixture 41K87Rb, among the most
promising candidates to create a molecular dipolar BEC.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
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